Translations That Matter: About a Foundational Text in Feminist Studies in Spain

Abstract

AbstractIn this article I examine some aspects of the translation of a text that played a foundational role in feminist studies in Spain in the 1990s: Joan W. Scott’s article “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis.” The interpretation that was given to Scott’s text, within the conceptual map available at the time and place of translation, weakened, in a way, the historian’s constructivist approach, an approach that invited inquiry into the construction of sex differences in specific historical contexts, in order to cast doubt on the fixed understanding of such differences. All translation necessarily entails a reelaboration that is determined not only by linguistic issues but also by the limits imposed by local horizons of thought that shape the interpretation of the original and therefore influence the decisions made within the translation itself. The internationalization of feminist studies is inextricably linked to the phenomenon of translation. Although feminist studies have reflected on th...